Damper (food)

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox prepared food Damper is a thick home-made bread traditionally prepared by early European settlers in Australia.Template:Citation needed It is a bread made from wheat-based dough.Template:Citation needed Flour, salt and water,<ref name=CMCMJ01111840>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Our daily bread">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with some butter if available,Template:Citation needed is kneaded and baked in the coals of a campfire,<ref name="Our daily bread" /> either directly or within a camp oven.Template:Citation needed

Etymology

The word "damper" originated as a specific use of the British word "damper", meaning "something that takes the edge off the appetite".<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There was likely also some influence from the phrase "damp down" as in "to damp down a fire".<ref name=":0" />

When cooked as smaller, individually-sized portions, the damper may be known as "bush scones" or "johnnycakes" (also "johnny cakes").<ref name="Macquarie">Template:Cite dictionary</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> North American cornmeal bread is also called johnnycake; it is uncertain if this influenced the Australian term. However, Australian johnnycakes, while often pan-fried, remain wheat-based.<ref name="Macquarie" /><ref name="morris">Template:Cite book</ref>

Description

Damper was eaten by stockmen who travelled in remote areas for long periods, with only basic rations of flour (much less bulky than baked bread<ref name="CMCMJ01111840" />), sugar and tea, supplemented by whatever meat was available.Template:Citation needed It was also a basic provision of squatters.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Primary source inline Damper is generally held to be unleavened and made without added rising agents, but historically, if the bread dough was left overnight, it could sometimes have leavened naturally, and this may have been a commonly understood technique in bush lore.<ref name="Our daily bread" /> Some recipes added portions of the previous night's dough, similar to a sourdough starter.<ref name="Our daily bread" /> Damper was normally cooked in the ashes of the campfire.<ref name="Our daily bread" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Damper could also be cooked in a greased camp oven. Damper was eaten with dried or cooked meat or golden syrup.Template:Citation needed

Damper is considered quintessentially Australian, and emblematic of early European settlement and rural life there, although this way to make bread was not unique to colonial or pre-colonial Australia.<ref name="Our daily bread" /> Other cultures have similar hearth breads, and versions of soda or other quick breads are made when camping in many parts of the world,<ref name="Our daily bread" /> including New Zealand and the United Kingdom.Template:Citation needed

The bread is different from bush bread, which has been eaten by Indigenous Australians for thousands of years, traditionally made by crushing a variety of native seeds, nuts and roots, and mixing them into a dough baked in the coals of a fire.<ref name="Emu">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="wroth">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There are studies into whether this technique of various Aboriginal peoples influenced the development of colonial-era damper, similarly cooked in the ashes of a camp fire.<ref name="Behrendt">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Archaeology">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Our daily bread" />

See also

• Ash cake
• Bannock (Indigenous American food)
• Bread in culture
• Bush tucker
• History of bread
• Tortilla de rescoldo